


Too Stubborn for Your Own Good

by 1848pianist



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Architect Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Erik is stubborn, Established Relationship, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 18:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13013766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1848pianist/pseuds/1848pianist
Summary: Erik overworks himself but he's stubborn and insists he's fine and keeps working, right up until the moment he collapses. Charles proceeds to over-worry and fuss over him, and then Erik's the one who has to console him and tell him he's fine.





	Too Stubborn for Your Own Good

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thacmis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thacmis/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [thacmis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thacmis/pseuds/thacmis) in the [secret_mutant_madness_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/secret_mutant_madness_2017) collection. 



> Incidentally, I literally caught a cold while writing this. Method writing.

“How was work?” Charles asks one day, noticing the way Erik’s shoulders slump with exhaustion. No wonder, since the past few nights Erik has gone to bed after Charles has fallen asleep, and left for work before Charles has even woken up. Come to think of it, Charles doesn’t have any proof that Erik is sleeping at all.

“Fine,” Erik replies, in a way that strongly suggests he hadn’t fully heard the question.

When Charles doesn’t reply, Erik glances up at him.

“What?”

Charles shrugs, although internally there are alarm bells of worry going off. “You look tired, is all. I wondered if there was something at work that was bothering you.”

“It’s this client,” Erik sighs. “He keeps changing his mind about what he wants, and he doesn’t seem to understand even the basic laws of physics.”

“You’ve had demanding clients before,” Charles points out. “He’s worse?”

Erik nods grimly.

“Good lord.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll just tell him that ‘light and airy’ and ‘privacy and intimacy’ are opposing aesthetic choices.”

Charles laughs, but he keeps a close eye on Erik for the rest of the evening.

*

If Charles had hoped that the problem with the client would disappear in a week or two, he is disappointed when Erik comes home the following week looking more worn out than ever.

“Bad day?” he prompts.

“Not really,” Erik says. “Just a busy season.”

“Sure,” Charles says, but he can’t quite let the matter go. “Have you thought about taking a break? You must have more than enough vacation days by now.”

“I can’t, I’m needed now more than any other time. I’ll ask for time off when things quiet down.”

 _Will you?_ Charles wonders, although he more than anyone understands the urge to be available at work all the time, for every matter.

“I just think you could use the rest,” he says. “It’s up to you.”

“I’ll be fine,” Erik insists. “Don’t worry.”

“Alright. Are you coming to bed?”

“I’ll be right there. Go ahead.”

*

Whatever Erik says, Charles does worry. He especially worries when he gets a call from Erik’s architecture firm telling him that Erik has collapsed at work. While Charles is still calculating how long it will take him to get there and then to the nearest hospital, Erik’s supervisor says, “I wouldn’t worry, though. He’s headed home now.”

That snaps Charles out of his thoughts. “I’m sorry, he’s doing what?”

“He’s driving himself home,” the supervisor says, in a way that suggests that she’s already had this conversation with Erik. “He’s a force of nature, isn’t he?”

“Something like that,” Charles replies, shortly before hanging up. Then he has nothing to do but to wait for Erik to get home, furious, but mostly sick with worry.

When Erik gets home, he insists that he’s fine.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Charles asks as Erik hangs up his coat. He looks pale and shaky, but well…he seems to be upright, which sooth Charles’ most vivid fears. A little.

“Hanging up my coat?”

“Absolutely not,” Charles says. “Your boss said you collapsed. You were in no state to drive yourself home, and I’m not letting you walk around without figuring out what’s going on. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”

“You _collapsed_ at _work_.”

“It would have been better if I collapsed somewhere else?”

“Of course not! I mean, it’s good that you’re…conscious.” Charles shakes his head. “Just go back to the car.

“I’m fine—”

“Fine?”

“Alright, not fine. But if you take me to the hospital they’re just going to say that I need a good night of sleep and send me back home.”

Charles drums his fingers against the arm of his wheelchair. “Fine. But sit down, at least. No, just go to bed, and if you so much as…solve an equation, I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“I _was_ going to bed.”

“Well…” Charles searches for a reply. “Good.”

“Good.” Erik heads down the hall, then turns back to Charles. “I didn’t collapse, I was just temporarily dizzy.”

“Due to exhaustion!”

“No one ever died of exhaustion.”

“Yes, they did!” Charles sighs. “You’re impossible. And too stubborn for your own good.”

Erik smiles with just the corner of his mouth. “You’d yell at someone who just collapsed at work?”

“Just go to bed and get a reasonable amount of sleep, would you please?”

Erik raises his hands in mock surrender and heads for the bedroom. Charles stares after him, rubbing his temple to ward off a slowly building headache that is part exasperation, part relief. Then he follows Erik, because who knows if he’s actually going to sleep.

Erik looks up from taking off his shoes as Charles comes in.

“What, you didn’t trust me?”

“Says the man who said he didn’t need to take any time off work.”

“Fair enough,” Erik admits. He swings his legs onto the bed, then moves over to make room for Charles.

“Come here. You can keep me company and make sure I don’t, I don’t know, die in my sleep.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Charles says, but he goes over to the bed and lies down next to him.

Erik looks at him. “Are you really that worried about it?”

“Shh. You agreed to go to sleep.”

“Technically, I think I agreed not to solve any equations. But seriously, I’m just tired. You don’t have to worry.”

“Of course I do. Your supervisor called and said you had collapsed, and were currently driving yourself home. It was possibly the most alarming language she could have used.”

“I’m sorry about that. But I’m definitely not going to die.”

“I know,” Charles says, after a pause.

“Okay.” Erik tilts his chin up and kisses Charles’ forehead. He smiles slightly. “I admit, I may have overworked myself—”

“May have?”

“Alright, I did. But I’m hardly on death’s door.”

“I didn’t say—” Charles begins. “Alright, I may have overreacted slightly.”

Erik raises an eyebrow. “Well, you may also have been right these last few weeks. I think I’m even going to take some time off. More than just the next couple of days, anyway.”

Charles meets his eyes, a smile at the corner of his lips. “Really?

Erik nods. “Really. Someone else can deal with the clients who don’t factor gravity into their concept designs.”

“That sounds like a very good idea.”

“I agree. Now will you stop worrying about me?”

“Not likely. But I just might stop panicking.”

“I’ll take it,” Erik says.

“Excellent,” Charles replies. “And just think, this vacation you’re planning will give you plenty of time to catch up on sleep.”

“I thought you just—”

“This isn’t me worrying. This is just a typical, well-meaning order. Go to sleep, and when you wake up I’ll make you some soup.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Stubborn is as Stubborn Does](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15100040) by [WaxRhapsodic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaxRhapsodic/pseuds/WaxRhapsodic)




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